Undoing is a defense mechanism in which a person tries to symbolically cancel out or reverse an unacceptable, destructive or threatening thought or action by engaging in a contrary behavior soon afterward. For example, someone who has a hostile or violent thought toward another person might respond by acting with exaggerated kindness toward that same person. The concept draws on the German term Ungeschehenmachen, meaning to make something not have happened, capturing the idea that the later action is meant to erase or offset the earlier one rather than simply express a different feeling.
Facts
Core ClaimA person tries to cancel out or remove an unhealthy, destructive or threatening thought or action by engaging in contrary behavior. 1 First Described Year Classification
Type of Phenomenon Connections
In Branch
Source Undoing (psychology), Wikipedia
Sources
1. Undoing (psychology), Wikipedia
Lead, first sentence
Undoing is a defense mechanism in which a person tries to cancel out or remove an unhealthy, destructive or otherwise threatening thought or action by engaging in contrary behavior.
Freud's development of the concept section
Freud first described the practice of undoing in his 1909 "Notes upon a Case of Obsessional Neurosis".
lead section, phenomenon-kind classification
Undoing is a defense mechanism in which a person tries to cancel out or remove an unhealthy, destructive or otherwise threatening thought or action by engaging in contrary behavior.
In Branch: Personality Psychology, Lead sentence
Undoing is a defense mechanism in which a person tries to cancel out or remove an unhealthy, destructive or otherwise threatening thought or action by engaging in contrary behavior.
In Group: Defense Mechanisms, Lead
Undoing is a defense mechanism in which a person tries to cancel out or remove an unhealthy, destructive or otherwise threatening thought or action by engaging in contrary behavior.
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